Tufting needle



May 30, 1967 w. WEISS 3,322,085

TUFTI NQ NEEDLE Filed Sept. 20, 1965 INVENTOR WARREN WEISS ATTORNEY United States Patent 3,322,085 TUFTING NEEDLE Warren Weiss, Richmond, Va., assignor to Allied Chemical Corporation, New York, N.Y., a corporation of New York Filed Sept. 20, 1965, Ser. No. 488,436 2 Claims. (Cl. 112-222) This invention relates to a tufting needle. More particularly, this invention relates to a new tufting needle which eliminates substantially all of the back pulls heretofore experienced in the tufting of articles with multifilament yarns such as in the tufting of nylon carpets with multi-filament nylon yarn.

The tufting of carpets resembles in many respects sewing on a sewing machine. It is performed using a machine having many needles extending laterally across the machine each needle being fed by a separate spool of yarn. The needle is turned slightly 45 so that the eye does not directly face in the same longitudinal direction as the passage of say the carpet backing. Hence, when looking directly at a tufting machine in which carpet backing is passing one does not see the eye of the needle but sees the edge formed by the longitudinal inside wall of the needle and the face of the needle. The yarn passes from the channel side of the tufting needle through the eye and up the back of the needle. The carpet backing is moved through the tufting machine. The tufting needles pass through the carpet backing bringing yarn with them and the yarn is held in a tuft by loopers which actually hook into the yarn loop and hold it in place for one tuft. The looper then disengages from the yarn loop and picks up another tuft. The yarn is held in permanent relationship with the carpet backing when the backing has applied thereto a rubber latex emulsion.

A problem is encountered in tufting multi-filament yarns as some of the filaments of multi-filament yarn tend to be stray filaments, i.e., do not pass through the eye of the needle, but pass around the needle body itself. What occurs from these stray filaments is known as a back pull. This happens when the needle after finishing a tuft rises out of the carpet backing and hooks onto or catches a stray filament thus causing the tuft just made to be pulled out. It can be readily seen that these stray filaments can be a substantial nuisance in the tufting of carpets necessitating shutdowns of the apparatus or in the alternative a. resultant product of poor quality.

It is an object of this invention, therefore, to provide a needle which substantially eliminates stray filaments present in the tufting of multi-filament yarns.

It is an object of this invention to provide an inexpensive needle which accomplishes the purposes outlined above.

These and other objects of this invention will become more apparent from the following description and claims.

Broadly, this invention contemplates a needle useful as a tufting needle in the tufting of carpets with multi-filament yarn, said needle comprising a needle eye, a shaft and at least one edge formed by an inside longitudinal wall of said needle eye and the face of said needle, said edge being sufficiently sharp to cut stray filaments passing over said edge.

In a particularly desirable embodiment, this invention contemplates a needle useful as a tufting needle in the tufting of carpets with multi-filament yarn, said needle comprising a needle eye, a shaft and at least one razor edge formed by an inside longitudinal wall of said needle eye and the face of said needle.

Referring to the accompanying drawings:

FIGURE 1 is an enlarged view of the tufting needle of this invention.

FIGURE 2 is an enlarged side elevation of the bottom portion of a tufting needle of this invention, the enlargement being greater than that of FIGURE 1.

FIGURE 3 is an enlarged plan view of the bottom portion of a tufting needle of this invention, the enlargement similar to that of FIGURE 2.

FIGURE 4 is an enlarged sectional view of a tufting needle of this invention said view taken along lines 4-4 of FIGURE 3.

FIGURE 5 is a similar sectional view taken along similar lines of a tufting needle of the prior art.

Referring to the drawings, needle 10 has a shaft 14 having ridges 20 defining a groove 18. The groove 18 terminates at needle eye 16. On at least one side of needle eye 16 there is a beveled side 22 forming an edge, preferably a razor edge, with the inside longitudinal Wall of needle eye 16 at 24. The needle terminates at point 12. It will be seen from the drawings particularly when comparing figures 4 and 5 that the tufting needle of the instant invention differs from the tufting needles heretofore employed by the angle at which the face of the tufting needle at beveled side 22 meets the inside longitudinal wall of the needle eye 16. This edge, preferably a razor edge, formed at 24 severs stray filaments before they can pull out a previous tuft when the needle is used in tufting multi-filament yarns.

The needle of this invention is used in exactly the same manner as tufting needles heretofore employed. When employing the tufting needle, the needle is turned about 45 so that the edge faces in the direction of the travel of the carpet backing. Hence, when the needle brings yarn through the backing and is pulled up through the carpet backing to begin another tuft, any stray filaments will be cut by the edge provided by the face of the needle at beveled side 22 and the inside longitudinal wall of the needle eye 16. Preferably, the lower portion of the tufting needle, say the lower quadrant, or lower left quadrant, when viewing the needle as in FIGURE 1, is beveled sufliciently to form the requisite edge at 24 since the yarn is in great contact with that portion of the needle in the tufting of carpets and the like with multi-filament yarn. The sharpened edge at 24 should normally be about 0.15 inch in length. However, it is to be realized that dimensions are relative to the nature of the yarn employed and the denier of the individual filaments to be severed by edge at 24. This will also depend upon the nature of the specific material. Hence, the sharpness of the edge formed at 24 will vary in that sharper edges will be required to cut thicker yarn of stronger material than will be required to cut very fine filaments of weak yarns. Hence, the term sharp means sufficient to sever the stray filaments before enough tension is applied to pull out a tuft. When using the tufting needle of this invention, I have found surprisingly that of the back pulls can be eliminated by using a needle having the requisite sharp edge. When employing a tufting needle having a razor edge an even greater efliciency of elimination of back pulls can be achieved.

The terms and expressions which have been employed are used as terms of description and not of limitations, and there is no intention, in the use of such terms and expressions, of excluding any equivalent of the features shown and described or portions thereof, but it is recognized that various modifications and departures are possible within the scope of the invention claimed.

I claim:

1. A tufting machine needle comprising a shank portion, shaft portion and a point portion, said shaft portion having a thread groove along the length thereof and forming parallel longitudinal edges along its length, a needle eye formed within said groove adjacent said point por- 3 4 tion, one of said formed edges being sufficiently sharp No references cited. adjacent said eye to cut stray filaments of a thread adapted to pass through said eye and lie within said groove as PATRICK D. LAWSON, Primary Examiner.

said filaments pass over said edge.

2. Aneedle according to claim 1 wherein said edge 5 is a razor edge.

R. J. SCANLAN, JR., Assistant Examiner. 

1. A TUFTING MACHINE NEEDLE COMPRISING A SHANK PORTION, SHAFT PORTION AND A POINT PORTION, SAID SHAFT PORTION HAVING A THREAD GROOVE ALONG THE LENGTH THEREOF AND FORMING PARALLEL LONGITUDINAL EDGES ALONG ITS LENGTH, A NEEDLE EYE FORMED WITHIN SAID GROOVE ADJACENT SAID POINT PORTION, ONE OF SAID FORMED EDGES BEING SUFFICIENTLY SHARP ADJACENT SAID EYE TO CUT STRAY FILAMENTS OF A THREAD ADAPTED TO PASS THROUGH SAID EYE AND LIE WITHIN SAID GROOVE AS SAID FILAMENTS PASS OVER SAID EDGE. 